Craft Beer and Cider

What makes a beer a “strange brew” is generally up for debate by beer connoisseurs, but what almost everyone will agree on is that a “strange brew” needs to be far away from tradition and normality. You might as well throw the Reinheitsgebot right out of the window now and check timid taste buds at the door because these beers are crafted with the intention of taking everything you know and hold dear about beer and then twisting an breaking those preconceived notions of flavor.

This is a celebration of uniquely crafted brews from local breweries. Expect the unexpected! Most of the offerings from our local breweries will only be available at this festival. We’re talking about uncommon beer, in many cases specially crafted for this event. These brews will challenge your taste buds, your ideas of beers, and your sensibilities. Strange Brew will be complimented with live music from local bands and a tasty BBQ too. A truly different kind of brew festival for the beer geek in all of us!

Just kidding! There is absolutely no way I could guess how most of these mad scientist creations are concocted, besides a lot of creativity, passion, and willingness to potentially make something that tastes worse than a 7-year-old McDonald’s burger.

Most of the brewers taking part are professionals and produce absolutely amazing creations to astonish the taste buds but you just never know with these experiments. Personally I could really go for a maple syrup and bacon stout right now like I’ve enjoyed at a Strange Brew Festival in years past.

Buy your all-you-can-drink tickets online now from the Brewer’s Cabinet in Reno and prepare your tongue for a wild ride. See you all there!

You might think of the popularized mass produced Blue Moon here in the United States when you think of wheat beers. I think of craft Belgian Wit beers on the beach toward the end of a hot day in the sun. Wheat beer is crafted to have a pale often unfiltered golden color using a high amount of wheat relative to traditional brews. Wheat beers by definition are in violation of the traditional German Purity law Reinheitsgebot. As demand for varied quality craft beers increases, a higher portion of new craft brews fail to adhere to Reinheitsgebot than ever before.

There are many styles of wheat beer that you can make(Here are a choice few):

German Hefeweizens (from the German words Hefe = yeast and weizen = wheat) are typically brewed with special yeasts whose phenols produce clove flavors, along with esters that produce bubble gum, banana, or vanilla flavors especially at warmer fermentation temperatures. Pale malt or pilsner malt is typically used with the wheat malt. They are also lightly hopped and unfiltered and average 4.5% to 5% ABV. There are also two German dark wheat styles: Dunkelweizen and Weizenbock. Dunkelweizens are similar to the regular hefeweizens except they use Munich, Vienna, and Cara-Munich malts in place of some of the pale malts and have darker colors. Weizenbocks are similar to Dunkelweizens but have higher alcohol levels in the 7-9% range.

Belgian Witbiers (white beers) are similar to the German Hefeweizen style. They use a special yeast that ferments crisp with a little tartness to it. They also add coriander and orange peel in the last 5-15 minutes of the boil as well as some flavor or aroma hops not used in the German Hefeweizens. All-grain brewers will usually use white wheat to give an even lighter color.

American wheat beers use a neutral yeast that doesn’t give the banana or clove flavors. There are also many variations that include honey and/or fruit added to the end of the boil and then fermented, or fruit can flavoring added at bottling time. Honey is nearly 100% fermentable and will dry the overall malt taste of your beer. You can instead steep a pound of honey malt(a specialty grain) prior to adding your wheat malt extracts to provide more honey flavor to your wheat beer.

By now as a craft beverage enthusiast, you have almost certainly seen or heard of barrel-aged brews, you probably have even tried at least a couple of the ones currently on the market. Barrel-aging Lagers, Ales, and everything in-between can yield a very unique finished product. The goal of the barrel aging is to impart the flavors of the wood of choice upon the brew of choice. “Today’s craft brewers are using wood (mostly oak) to influence flavor and aromatics. Beer may be aged in wooden barrels (new or previously used to age wine or spirits), or chips, spirals and cubes may be added to the conditioning tanks that normally house beer. A variety of types of wood are used including oak, apple, alder, hickory and more. The interior of most barrels is charred or toasted to further enhance the flavor of the wood.” via CraftBeer.com

Which Brews?

One of the most commonly barrel-aged varieties of beer would be your traditional lambic sours. These purposefully contaminated beer is often fermented in used barrels for both the wood taste it will leave as well as the bacterial content of the barrel. Some stouts, especially Russian Imperial Stouts are often aged in old bourbon barrels to impart both the taste of the wood and the taste of the bourbon into the craft beer.

Barrels You Say?

For beers that aren’t supposed to be sour’s you often can only get one good use out of a barrel before the main flavor characteristics are gone. After using the barrel for a beer such as a wood flavored stout the barrel may be saved and allowed to sit with bacteria in order to become a barrel used for fermenting sour beers.

Sour Barrels

Once a barrel has been used for sour beers it’s near impossible to return the barrel to non-sour condition again. Some brewers who want a bunch of smaller batches of sour beer at a time will do a big barrel batch and then just pull our small 5-gallon batches at a time and do additions to the sours as they feel fit. In the process, new beer is added to the barrel to prevent oxidization and the sour bacteria will continue to live on and on replicating on the new beer regularly added.

If you are into hard ciders then you have probably heard about wild yeast ciders before. Wild cider may just be coming into the spotlight in popular cider culture in today’s society, but wild yeast ciders are actually the original cider. Often in the old days, people would extract the apple juice and then just let the yeast already in the juice from the apples do all of the fermentation work.

So What?

They are just as the name says, a hard cider brewed with wild/naturally occurring yeast. In modern times, we sometimes still press the apples and let the battle between yeast begin, but this method is the least predictable. The various microbes on the apples will be different for every batch from year to year and thus will yield a very different result each time.

Now consistency is far from the name of the game with “wild” hard ciders so this may not be the biggest concern but for slightly more controlled wild yeast cider the yeast can be naturally caught after pasteurizing your starting juice.

Catching Wild Yeast

The process is quite simple: leave the cider open on the counter, covered lightly with cheesecloth, for several days until some wild yeast finds its way into the bottle. You’ll know that you’re in business because the juice will begin to bubble and fizz. When you can see bubbles rising to the top of the bottle, you know that wild yeast have begun to consume the sugar in your juice and turn it into alcohol. via Creative Simple Life

The main advantage of using pasteurized juice and letting yeast find its way in is that you will likely end up with less varieties of yeast in the same juice. This allows for a more directed and consistency cider than just letting nature run its course.

So if you are okay with a less than predictable finsihed product then I highly recommend you give wild yeast cider brewing a try!

Once again we are at the start of my favorite season of the year! Time for the transition from a diet of hearty stouts and porters, back to lighter summer beers like session west coast IPA’s! Of course, there are other types of session beers such as a session pilsner but my preference is always the west coast IPA. Brewers are starting to come up with fresh hopped creations as early harvested hops come into season. If you ask me it couldn’t come any sooner!

What Makes a Beer a Session Beer?

A British expat and buddy of ours in California once suggested that a “session” referred to one of the two allowable drinking periods in England that were imposed on shell production workers during World War I. Typically the licensed sessions were 11am-3pm and 7pm-11pm, and apparently continued up until the Liquor Licensing Act 1988 was introduced. Workers would find a beer that they could adequately quaff within these restrictive 4-hour “sessions” that were laid down by the government without getting legless and return to work or not get arrested for being drunk and disorderly. via Beeradvocate

Generally, today a session beer is interpreted as having a full flavor but lower than normal alcohol content. In particular, the alcohol content should never be over 5% for a “session” beer. A session beer is a beer that you would take fishing or camping and literally drink them all day long because the alcohol content is the right level for maintaining a buzz without getting smashed.

Here on the west coast USA we see more Session IPA’s than any other type of beer right around this time of year. People want a full flavor craft IPA that they can take to the beach with a big group and enjoy all day long without becoming an inebriated mess. I’m the type of person that refuses to sacrifice on flavor or to buy bad quality beer just to have a lower ABV. These session brews are a lifesaver in the summer!

The one Question that I get asked more than any other about brewing beer and the delicious concoctions that follow is does the craft beer expire? The answer to this question is a bit less clear than the question itself. Yes, craft beer can go bad after a period of time, but there isn’t exactly an “expiration date”. If you highly value fresh hop flavor this is of maximum importance for you! High alcohol beers tend to age better in general, but the rule of thumb remains that the beer will be constantly changing. Some flavors will become more apparent and some will fade away.

Always Changing

As soon as a craft beer leaves the brewery the beer begins a slow gradual change process even in optimal storage. A typical craft beer will last about a year before the taste starts to go bad under optimal storage conditions similar to wine storage. Of course, this assumes the beer was stored properly, in harsh conditions relative to the beer it won’t last nearly as long. Don’t leave a 6 pack in your truck for a year and hope that it will still be exactly the same. Some craft brews are brewed for maximum fresh in-your-face flavor and as such should be enjoyed in a very short timeframe.

Short Expiration Window Brews

Puréed tangerines were added to the batch to create a devastatingly fresh IPA with a tang of tangerine. The flavors yielded by this addition to the recipe meld beautifully with the bitterness of the hops. True to this series, Stone Enjoy By Tangerine IPA is brewed specifically NOT to last, and should be enjoyed within 37 days. via STONE

Stone Brewing’s Enjoy By series is a great example of a short expiration date craft brew. I can’t tell you how excited I am for the release of the Tangerine IPA next week! The only downside is in order to get the taste intended by the brewer, it must be consumed in 37 days or less. In this case, 5.30.16 is part of the name of the brew and as such it is very clear when to drink the last of them by.

Beer and football go together like hops and malt. They have plenty of positives on their own, but together they can really shine. Now the question has always presented itself as to which team has fans with the best taste in beer. Until now this question was the fuel behind many beer debates at personal parties and sporting events alike, and it seemed we would never have the answer. At last with the power of social networking, a study has been conducted on the preferences of NFL team fans. The results might surprise or even annoy you, but at least now you have the fuel you need to debate your friendly rival fans.

Does your NFL team have the fans with the best taste in beer? Well just hold on a second there because you might just have it all wrong! Check the list below to find out what the popular beer and liquors are for your team!

according to a study released (January) by Nielsen and social network Bartrendr, which analyzed more than 10 million online conversations among football fans. When it comes to liquor, they like Jack Daniels the most, followed by Hennessy. – Catey Hill

NFL team

Beer

Liquor

Arizona Cardinals

Blue Moon

Evan Williams

Atlanta Falcons

Corona

Jack Daniels

Baltimore Ravens

Bud Light

Svedka

Buffalo Bills

Miller Lite

Hennessy

Carolina Panthers

Heineken

Jack Daniels

Chicago Bears

Coors and Guinness

Evan Williams

Cincinnati Bengals

Bud Light

Hennessy

Cleveland Browns

Bud Light

Fireball

Dallas Cowboys

Corona

Jack Daniels

Denver Broncos

Bud Light

Bacardi

Detroit Lions

Bud Light

Jim Beam

Green Bay Packers

Bud Light

Captain Morgan

Houston Texans

Coors Light

Jim Beam

Indianapolis Colts

Pabst Blue Ribbon

Jameson

Jacksonville Jaguars

Pabst Blue Ribbon

Jameson

Kansas City Chiefs

Budweiser

Hennessy

Miami Dolphins

Corona

Grey Goose

Minnesota Vikings

Budweiser

Fireball

New England Patriots

Budweiser

Patron

New Orleans Saints

Budweiser

Crown Royal

New York Giants

Blue Moon

Ketel One

New York Jets

Blue Moon

Hennessy

Oakland Raiders

Coors

Jack Daniels

Pittsburgh Steelers

Guinness

Jameson

Philadelphia Eagles

Yuengling

Fireball

San Diego Chargers

Bud Light

Captain Morgan

San Francisco 49ers

Blue Moon

Jack Daniels

Seattle Seahawks

Bud Light

Patron

St. Louis Rams

Bud Light

Fireball

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Budweiser

Hennessy

Tennessee Titans

Bud Light

Jack Daniels

Washington Redskins

Budweiser

Jim Beam

As an Oakland Raider fan it comes of no surprise to me that Coors is the beer of choice from witnessing the tailgate aftermath at The Coliseum each game. It should come of no surprise to you that this is not my own beer of choice. You can generally find me at the regularly placed Lagunitas beer tent for my beer needs in Raider Nation.

With the draft only a couple weeks away it’s time to start preparing once again for football season! Go sample a few beers now to make sure you’re ready when the time comes!